Defender’s Call
by Tobias Cyril
Summary: The BNHA universe from the perspecitve of an ambitious young man named Rei and his friends as they tackle the US version of the Hero Course. Please review and give me any critiques you might have.


_**I am happy to finally be back, we have our new beginning. I hope you guys enjoy and as always, please leave a critique of anything that can be improved to increase the quality of the chapter.**_

"Alright class settle down, settle down." Ordered Mr. Sago, my first period teacher, a tall man with a simple goatee and straight black hair.

It was close to the end of my ninth grade year, and today was the day that I began the testing process for getting into one of the best high schools in North America: Hero Academies, and I had my sights set on one in particular: Defender High, the number one hero school in North America. I was so excited that I was almost through the roof, literally, I was laying down on the ceiling of the classroom, pushing up the tiles.

"Rei, can you please get down." Admonished Mr. Sago. "I know you're excited but please control yourself."

"Sorry sir." I half say, half scream as I fall down from the ceiling and onto the desk followed by a round of laughter.

"Today is the first day of admissions testing for the Hero Academies." Began Mr. Sago. "Your quirk isn't enough to get you into the schools, you need to pass tests for basic Mathematics, English and Science skills and then a more advanced test for specialized courses. Anyone who is bilingual will need to pass a grammar test and an oral test that will be given to you in that language.

"After the written tests a physical test. When, and if, you pass the test, a letter will arrive at your address with the time and date of your physical test for your quirk. If you make it past the quirk test, a second letter will be sent from all of the schools you qualify for. You will be testing almost all day today and most of the day tomorrow. Your tests start second period and you will stay here. Take the rest of the period to prepare yourself." With that he walked over to his desk and began sorting the test papers from a large tub.

"You ready to ace this test?" Asked a voice from behind me.

I turn around in my seat to face my good friend Nigel. "Of course." I reply to the solidly built guy. Nigel's quirk that allows him to change his skin into anything he touched. "But I doubt that I'm going to do good on it. If the physical test is anything like people say it is, I won't do well, mostly physical quirks passed onto high ranking classes. But you'll ace the physical test, your quirk is perfect for it."

"Hey, you'll make it through, you're smart enough." He cheered, flashing his pointy toothed smile.

"I hope I am." I sigh, turning back around. This is the test that will determine my future. I begin thinking about how I even got here. When I was three, small horns began to grow on the top of my head. My quirk developed when I was five, a late bloomer. I was adopted so my family had no idea what my quirk would be. Before I knew it I was running on the ceiling, much to my parents' dismay. Then I found out my reversal power. One day my mom was working on her speed at the track, not like she needed to or anything, her quirk, Blink Speed, already had her running a mile in a little over a minute. I wanted to go home but she wouldn't have it. I got mad and when she tried to run instead of going fast she went slower than a turtle, almost falling on her face. She then walked to the opposite side of the track and was able to run, but as soon as she passed near me she slowed instantly.

We went to the registration office and listed my quirk as original and was dubbed as Reversal.

Once people at my elementary school found out they started teasing me by saying my quirk and horns were perfect for a villain. Many kids were scared because of my appearance and usually stayed away. But one day a crazy kid with pointy teeth came up to me and said, "I think your quirk is awesome, you'd make a great hero. My name's Nigel." He said cheerfully with an outstretched hand. That day I decided that I would become a hero, not only to save others, but to show those who doubted in me that I could become a hero.

I had just finished sharpening my pencil when Mr. Sago's voice cut through the nostalgic memories. "Take your seats, the testing begins now." He passed out the first booklet, basic English comprehension. "You'll have two and a half hours to complete one hundred and seventy five questions. Good luck. Your time begins now."

The sound of textbooks opening and pages flipping filled the classroom for an instant as people dove into their tests. Then all was silent except for the sound of pencils scratching, filling answer bubbles and circling letters. The test was different than any other and was considered one of the hardest tests in North America, even the world. I knew what to expect, each question had eight possible choices and one correct answer and got progressively harder with each question.

The English and science test flew by in a blur, same time allotment and same question numbers. They were both easy for me. Then after lunch we took the math test, which was three hours and two hundred questions with basic algebra, geometry and arithmetic to more advanced questions on algebra two and basic calculus. I got past question one sixty and some of them became really hard to answer, trigonometry and high level physics questions. By the end of the day I was beyond tired.

I caught the bus back home and watched the familiar city scape of Bellingham pass by in a blur I didn't really register what was happening until I stepped off the bus and onto the walkway of my small and cozy house. The stained and weathered wood of the outside and the dark blue painted door, all familiar and welcoming. The cold winter made the grass brown and drab, a slight mist was falling from the grey skies. I opened the door of the simple two floor house, the smell of cooking meat and sauteed vegetables filling the air. Dad was cooking tonight, which meant something delicious would be on the table

"Mom, Dad, I'm home." I call as I slip off my shoes and step onto the hardwood floor of the living room, the TV was on the news station and they were talking about the recent villain disturbances across the northern US and most of southern Canada, they were continuing to spread toward the west coast.

"Hey son." My dad said from the kitchen. "How was testing today?"

"Really tiring. I don't think I did too well on the last few math questions though." I say walking up the stairs to my room. The upstairs wasn't much, carpet covered most of the floor and it only had two rooms. A guest bedroom and my room. My room was simple, a bed sat on the floor and a TV with a Nintendo Switch console was plugged in. Not too far away, my desk was pushed against the wall, looking out towards the forest. My desktop still on the League of Legends main screen from yesterday. A poster of my favorite pro-hero, the Flame Bird hero, Phoenix, hung on the wall just to the left of the desk. Above my bed was a padded ceiling that I could walk and rest on and a hammock hung from two supporting hooks above the bed.

To either side was a closet full of clothes, day clothes and more formal wear that hardly ever saw the light of day. My bathroom was nothing fancy, just the usual sink, toilet and shower.

I threw my bag down and picked up the book I was reading. I switched my gravity and before I knew it I was lying on the ceiling, book in hand. As long as I kept at least five fingers on the book it would stay with me, if I let it go it would fall to the floor. I learned that lesson when my phone decided to fall onto the wooden bed frame and shattered the screen.

About ten minutes later the sound of the front door distracted me and I not so gracefully fell on my face from the ceiling with a dull thump. Thankfully it was on the bed. In the blink of an eye my mom was in my room, sweaty from her probably close to fifty mile run.

"You okay?" She asked, concerned.

"I'm fine" I say.

"How was testing?"

"I did terrible." I say flopping backwards onto the bed. "On the last portion of the math test the questions started getting hard. I finished the test at the last second, literally."

"You'll do better tomorrow." She encouraged, a huge smile on her face. She had always been there for me, supporting me.

"I hope so." I say, sitting back up.

"I know so." She said ruffling my hair.

"Watch the horns." I bat away her hands. "Did you really have to do that?" I ask, straightening my black hair back to the side.

"Hey, dinner's ready." called my Dad from downstairs

"Come on, let's go get some. I'll race you there."

"Okay then." I say switching on my quirk and reversing hers. I bolted out of the room and down the stairs as my mom protested. "Not fair."

I turn off my quirk and she quickly bolts down the stairs and into a seat, but right after me.

"I won." I boasted.

"You cheated."

"I wouldn't have to if your quirk wasn't speed."

"Hey now simmer down." My dad chastised as he walked into the room. "Tonight's stir fry and I don't want to ruin it with your bickering."

The night went on like any other, we ate and laughed. Talked about the day and what we did, like a normal family.

Before I knew it I was back at school, heading into a testing room, Nigel was wishing me luck, and sitting down in a different room with a different teacher for a test I knew was going to be harder.

"Today you will be taking the advanced science test." The old lady's shrill voice announced to the classroom, she was a quirkless old hag who despised the youth for their abilities. "You must answer two hundred questions in two and a half hours. Your time starts now."

I opened the booklet. The first question was about the basic structure of a cell, easy enough. I kept answering questions like they were nothing, then I hit a wall. With forty minutes left on the timer, I was drawing a blank on question one hundred and seventy five over the properties of Ohm's law and how the amperage and wattage in a certain thickness in a wire affect the resistance and which property was demonstrated. After that the question kept just getting harder and harder and on the last question I was asked something I didn't even understand: quantum physics. I took a guess and slammed the booklet shut just as the old teacher called time.

I left that room feeling terrible. I knew I didn't pass, not with that kind of performance. The next two tests would be easier for sure. They were questions over Japanese grammar and structure. I was one of only two people in my testing room. I finished way early and was confident in my answers, while the other student was clearly struggling with the questions.

The next test was an oral test. I had to hold up a conversation for five minutes and answer general knowledge questions that were asked in Japanese and I had to respond in Japanese. I passed that test easily, too.

I walked away from those confident and then into the cafeteria and sat down next to Nigel.

"So how do you think you did?" I asked, opening a bag of chips.

"The first few questions were easier than I thought but then they got harder suddenly. I don't think I answered some questions about the Fibonacci sequence or any of the calculus or trig questions well."

"Same goes for me." I said between bites. "I was asked some about quantum physics and had no clue what the answer was."

"At least the physical fitness portion will be easy."

"That we can both agree on." I said, chomping down on a sandwich.

The physical fitness test was a mile run, minute of push ups, minute of situps, minute of pull ups, and a forty yard dash. You were allowed to use your quirk as long as it didn't impede other testers.

When I started with the mile run I finished with a solid time of six minutes and thirty three seconds. The sit ups and push ups were also a breeze getting sixty three sit ups and fifty nine push ups. The pull ups were a little more challenging with the weakened arms but I managed to get in seven solid ones. I had a decent time of four point eight three for dash.

The next day classes went back to normal, and the waiting began. Each day I would check the mail for a letter saying I had passed to the next phase. Other kids began to receive their results each day at least ten more kids would say they got their results. Five weeks after the test I still haven't received a letter, and six kids from my school had passed, including Nigel. I began to give up hope. I trudged down the walk to the mailbox once more. The grass was green, the sky was cloudy and the breeze swayed through the green trees. At least the world was happy today. I opened the mailbox and there it was, waiting, with my name on it. "For the eyes of Rei Koizumi." I opened it right then and there, not caring who heard me scream in triumph.

The letter read: In this letter you will find the address for your regional quirk entrance assessment along with the date and time of the assessment. This letter also contains your score and national percentile for each category. Congratulations Mr. Koizumi, you have passed the first round of admission exams.

"YES." I shouted. "I passed. I passed."

"You passed?" Asked my Mom, she poked her head out of the door.

"Yes." I cheer running to the door.

"Let's look at your scores."

I eagerly flipped through the papers looking for the score sheet.

"I made an eighty one out of one hundred possible points," I read off. "eleven points higher than the required seventy. I finished in the seventy seventh percentile in physical fitness, twelve percent above the cutoff. I'm a slightly above average student. The assessment location is at 42 QAC on June first at one pm. That's in a week."

"Now all we have to do is wait," My Dad said with a beaming smile on his face. "And celebrate."

Then the waiting began again as June first drew nearer and nearer. I couldn't help but feel anxious. I was about to begin a journey that would make my dreams a reality at last.

Then the day arrived. We drove out to the middle of nowhere to a large concrete wall with a large forty two on the side. We pulled up to a gate and showed the guard our ID and letter of admission. The car pulled into a car park along with at least one hundred other cars.

"I have to finish in the top fifty out of two hundred people in order to pass the assessment. And then the top ten to be selected for the hero course at Defender." I say downtrodden as I get out of the car, wearing some gym shorts and a red t-shirt with a cross and snake design from one of my favorite anime. "With my quirk I won't make it."

"Don't say that." Said my mom as she gave me a blink speed slap to the head. "You're gonna do great." She says as we arrive at a crossroads. A sign pointing two directions one way for watchers, the other for testers.

"See you guys after the test." I turn and walk towards the end of the corridor. On the other side a crowd of people were gathered at a massive metal gate. I saw Nigel and ran up to him.

"Hey Nigel."

He turned around and smiled his sharktooth smile. "Hey. Good to see you here."

Nigel wasn't the only one who saw me. I heard the familiar "hey villain" and "upside down boy" from the ten others who passed from our school, all old bullies. I really hoped they didn't pass this part of the test.

"Welcome candidates." Said a booming voice over a hidden speaker system. Then a small platform appeared from the top of the large gate, and standing on it, in full hero suit, was Vancouver's main hero, Stormbreaker, the Snow Storm hero. "You have proved yourself to be competent enough to make it into a Hero School, you are in the top two hundred students in the state. Inside the arena is a simulated city with four different robotic enemies that are worth points. The easier the enemy the lower the point value. But one enemy is worth zero points, I recommend you avoid that one. You will have thirty minutes to rack up as many points as possible. The top fifty will pass and you will receive letters from the various Hero Academies you qualify for."

Then the doors began to open, revealing the streets of a city. "Good luck candidates, your time begins now."

The crowd surged forward, me along with them. I have to find some enemies and fast, I can use my quirk against others to slow them down a little and even the playing field a little bit. I ran through a group of testers and touched about six of them, hearing their cries of annoyance as their quirks backfire on them.

I turn a corner and I am rushed by a green armored robot, a two pointer. I jump up and land on the robot and find the maintenance panel at the base of its neck. I open it up to see wires and rip them out, shutting it off. There's two points. I repeat the process of reversing quirks and pulling wires and rack up at least ten points. After a while I ignore the larger bands of people wandering around the assessment area. I can't use my quirk too much cause I really didn't want to go through the next hour or so with a really bad stomach ache.

I turn a corner and see a large crowd running in the opposite direction. Shouting things like "giant robot." "it's the zero pointer.", "nope, nope, nope." Then I see it, a towering green robot, ready to crush us all. I start to turn the other way, there's no way my quirk can do anything against that.

Then a scream pierces the air, a shout of terror, yet everyone ignored it. Someone was in trouble. I had to help, even if my quirk was useless.

I ran, not away, but towards the machine. I wasn't alone, Nigel was running along right behind me. "I'll take on the robot, you save whoever was screaming." He barked.

I flash back a thumbs up and begin scanning the debris. The machine had knocked the tops off of several buildings, and someone had their legs pinned under one of the fallen pieces. She was screaming in absolute pain.

I ran over to her, "I'm here to help." Her legs were trapped under what must have been close to five hundred pound piece of concrete. Her jet black hair that was splayed out behind her. I began to think about what I could do. I was already at the limits of my abilities. The only way I could lift this rock would be to reverse my gravity while holding onto it. It was risky, in order to lift anything this heavy with me I would have to use a huge amount of energy to try and keep it slower than the actual speed of gravity. In the background the sound of crunching metal was obvious as Nigel went ham on the zero pointer. I looked up and it's treads were drawing closer to our position, aiming to crush us.

"Okay." I say into her ear. "I'm going to lift this while I hold onto you, you need to hold on tightly, because if you don't you will be in a lot more pain. Do you understand?"

She nodded yes through gritted teeth.

This wasn't the ideal situation. Almost everyone else had moved on to the other smaller robots to rack up points, so I was going to have no support if this went south. "On the count of three I'm going to lift us. One." I say building up energy. "Two, and three!" I shout as the block begins to rise upward. I pull her up and hold her tightly against my body, seeing her legs were completely broken as they hung there limply. I then began to lessen the energy I was pumping into the block, then we began to fall back down much faster than we had risen. We lagged slightly behind the block but I was still holding on. I pulled us onto the block and watched as the ground rushed up beneath us.

The zero pointer was right beneath us, we were going to hit it. We kept going faster and faster, then at the last second I began to slow us down, slightly reversing the block, pouring all I had into slowing us down, and the temperature rapidly dropped.

I look over to the girl and a blue flame was burning on her hand, the flame touching the concrete block, ice growing in a dome shape over us.

The impact arrived. We hit the zero pointer with a deafening screech of tearing metal and circuits. And in an instant, everything was still, my breath could be seen in the air, I looked over to the girl and she was almost unconscious. I had a massive headache and was about to hurl, but at least we were alive.

Then someone started hitting the ice, cracking it, Nigel' metal fist was the first thing I saw before I picked up the girl and jumped off the block not caring how much my head hurt and ignoring that fact that I just fractured my ankle from jumping off five foot thick concrete at the wrong angle.

I kept running, running towards the big metal entrance gate, weaving around the dead husks of vanquished robots. I heard a buzzer and someone over a speaker say that time was up. I kept running. I saw the entrance and medical staff waiting. When I reached the medics I placed the girl on a gurney and began to follow along with them before pain shot up my leg. I looked down and saw blood seeping from a hole in my leg where my ankle should be. In a split second, I was lying on the ground, my vision was going black, trying to keep my eyes open, but it was no use. The last thing I saw were the boots of a hero, standing right in front of me.

I woke up to a hospital bed and beeping instruments, my legs, hands and shins wrapped in bandages. I turned to look out the window, the trees gently swaying in the wind. I was still at the assessment facility. My parents weren't in the room but I heard the footfalls of someone enter. I turned to face the person and was then dumbfounded.

"Ah. You're awake." Said a familiar voice. One I had heard on TV news reels dozens of times. Standing in front of me was the flame bird hero, Phoenix. The man I had looked up to since I was five. He was dark skinned, a Native American, his black hair in long braid falling off his shoulder. His hero suit was one of the most recognizable, a dark blue base with his bold orange logo, the long sleeves growing brighter red as they went to his wrists.

"Phoenix." I say almost shaking with excitement and passing out again. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to tell you the results of the assessment." He turns around and turns on the TV embedded in the wall. A graphic with the names of all the participants listed in alphabetical order appeared.

"Only fifty people are able to pass this part of the exam." He said.

The graphic moved around and I saw my name in the fifty thrid position. With ten points to my name. I didn't pass, my dreams were shot down with one sentence.

The top score had over one hundred points. I scanned down the list and saw Nigel' name at spot number eight. He had made it by a mile.

"These are the scores without the the extra points."

I look up from my downtrodden state.

"There were other points available, called Hero Points. The assessment is judged by heroes from around the nation."

He pulled up a clip of me running towards the zero pointer, Nigel close behind. Then a clip of the girl and I shooting up and away unceremoniously in blur. Then crashing back down, an ice shell surrounding us, and me running back on a broken ankle to the front gate.

"The girl you saved is Ayden, she was already in the top ten at spot number five. She is alright and recovering. You and your friend rushed in to save her while everyone else ran away and continued to move on with the assessment.

"I know that your quirk isn't the strongest. I read your file before the assessment. Yet you rushed in anyways."

He switched the graphic again. My name moved up to the twenty sixth spot, with seventy five points, and Nigel moved to spot four.

"You were awarded sixty five hero points. Congratulations Rei, you now meet the requirements to choose a hero school.

I couldn't believe it. I made it. I could be going to the high school of my dreams.

"After you chose a school, a letter with your dorm room and a map of the campus will arrive."

Then the door opened again and my parents ran in. My mom hugged me and started cheering as my dad shook Phoenix's hand.

"We just heard too. We are so proud of you. Even if you didn't get in to a school, I'd still be proud."

"We are proud of you Rei." Cheered my dad, beaming with pride with a massive smile on his face. "You will become the next greatest hero. I believe that you will join the ranks of popular heroes like Phoenix behind me and maybe even All Might."

"Hey, I still have to graduate." I joke.

"I'll leave you all to celebrate and get ready to go home. I have to give the exciting news to Ayden." Said Phoenix, a wide smile on his face.

"I say we go get some dinner in Seattle, at your favorite Italian place, Bruno's" Suggested my mom.

"I would love that" I say. I see crutches that weren't there a second ago, right where Phoenix was standing, his logo emblazoned on them. I swing myself over the bed and grab the crutches. "But first let's go home. I'll need a change of clothes."

I made my way out of the hospital room. Filled with pride and joy. I made it, the first stepping stone on my long journey to be one of the best heroes of the modern age.

Thanks to my betareader Scottken.


End file.
